Weight Loss Help for Emotional Eating

Emotional eating can cause serious weight gain. The coping mechanism that people develop when they experience stress, conflicts and problems requires attention and should not be disregarded. According to research, those with this disorder are more likely to suffer from food obsession and episodes of binge-eating. Hence, they usually become overweight or obese in the long run.

How to Recognize Emotional Eating

Experts recommend that you should learn how to differentiate real hunger from binge eating in order to overcome the disorder. Emotional eating is defined as the urge to eat even when you are not hungry. Meaning, you tend to find comfort in food when you feel waves of emotions during a stressful event.

Emotional eating is often associated with feelings of low self-esteem, poor self-image, insecurities cause of changes in body weight and increased anxiety levels. To combat this behavior, you need to manage not only your intake of food, but also the trigger factors.

How to Control Emotional Eating

To stay fit and improve your overall health, you must learn how to deal with your urge to grab an unhealthy food item to satisfy your cravings. To help you manage your condition, here are some simple ways on how to control emotional eating:

Diversion activities can kill your cravings

When a stressful event strikes, your desire to eat in order to soothe your emotions also follows. Hence, when you feel the urge to grab a bite, you need to think of something that can distract your thoughts from food, and the pleasure that it brings. Diversion activities can kill your hunger pains and help you manage stress at the same time.

Enjoy healthy foods that are rich with antioxidants

Eating junk foods such as potato chips and high-fatty food can cause weight gain. Therefore, when you feel the need to eat to improve your mood, instead of enjoying unhealthy food, you can eat healthy snacks that are loaded with antioxidants such as fruits and vegetables. An appetizing salad bowl can serve as a better alternative in case you experience binge eating episodes.

Engage in fun activities to relieve stress symptoms

Stress is a major factor that can trigger emotional eating. To fight it, you can engage in various activities that can help eliminate stress and increase your happy hormones. There are different activities that can keep you busy and increase your endorphin level such as exercises, sports, outdoor adventures and relaxation techniques.

Get help

There’s no need to isolate yourself and be ashamed of your condition. If you feel that your problem is more than you can handle it’s best to ask help from experts. A support person can be a shoulder to lean on when you feel bad and problematic.

In addition to this, most experts know the right question to ask in order to diagnose the real cause of your stress. Once they identify your stressors, they will start giving you the best advice to treat your emotional distress. However, in order for your relationship to work, it is important to be honest and straightforward when answering questions and relaying experiences.